Misery loves company
by Ana Hazel
Summary: The 15th anniversary of the Battle of Yavin is celebrated with a costume party, but not everyone got the costume they wanted. / written for the SJRS September Challenge - Quote Exchange Challenge


**Title:**** Misery loves company **

**Author: **Hazel

**Genre: **humor, romance (?), AU (?), challenge entry

**Characters: **L/M, Leia

**Timeframe: **15 ABY

**Summary: **The 15th anniversary of the Battle of Yavin is celebrated with a costume party, but not everyone got the costume they wanted.

**Disclaimer: **The Star Wars Universe does not belong to me (unfortunately). I just like to play with it.

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><p><strong>Author's<strong>** notes: **This is my entry for the Skywalker-Jade Revival Society September 2011 Challenge:

_You must pick a Mara quote __and a Luke quote from Wookieepedia . _

_You__ can write your fic in any timeframe, any genre, etc. But, Luke has to say the Mara quote that you picked and Mara has to say the Luke quote._

My picked out quotes are:

**"The**** situation's a little awkward. I have an allergic reaction to stormtrooper armor." **

- Luke Skywalker in Truce at Bakura - Mara will say it

**"If**** you think I'm doing my hair back in buns and pulling on a white robe, some serious rethinking is due."**

- Mara Jade in Union - now Luke gets to say it

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><p><em>-<em>_ Imperial Palace, Coruscant, 15th Anniversary of the Battle of Yavin_

"No! No, no, no, no, no, no! NO!" Luke Skywalker shouted, shaking his head at the costume his sister had reserved for him. "I'm not putting that on!"

"Come on, Luke." Leia pleaded. "I warned you to not be late."

"NO!"

"Luke, think of the kids. They'll be so disappointed if you don't join the party."

"No, Leia! **If you think I'm doing my hair back in buns and pulling on a white robe, some serious rethinking is due.** I'm not dressing up as you."

This was supposed to be a fun day, a celebration of the turning point that had led to the end of the Empire and the birth of the New Republic. But these parties had a way of becoming rather dull after the first few years, so when someone thought it would be a good idea to do something different this year and have a dress up ball, everyone had cheered the thought.

This time, the party would be truly fun.

But, of course, people couldn't just dress up as they wanted, there had to be rules to the costumes. They were very simple rules, though: one had to pick an actual participant of the battle to mimic, no one could play him or herself and there couldn't be repeated costumes so people had to declare their intent in advance. It wouldn't be fun to have a dozen _Luke Skywalkers_ running around but no _Grand Moff Tarkin_, for example.

Leia had immediately set out to reserve the costumes for her family. She had gotten all their first picks - the _Mon Mothma_ suit for herself, the _Chewbacca_ for Han, the _Vader_ for Jacen, the _Han Solo_ for Jaina, the _R2-D2_ for Anakin, the _Ackbar_ for Chewie and the _Wedge Antilles_ for Luke.

But now it appeared that Luke's costume had been swapped for the _Princess Leia's_ and since they hadn't noticed the mistake until Luke arrived, just before the party, and had no idea who had received the other suit, there was no way they could exchange it back.

So, now there was no way around it, all the costumes had been checked out and Luke would have to go as _Princess Leia_ or not go at all.

An hour later, Luke had managed to find a secluded corner of the ball room in which to hide in. He'd been teased enough and still hadn't figure out who had taken his _Wedge_ costume.

He wasn't alone for long, though, since a couple of minutes later, a fidgety stormtrooper wandered towards him.

"Skywalker." The stormtrooper greeted him through her helmet

Luke recognized the person before him more by her Force-presence than her voice.

"Mara?"

"Nice costume." She chuckled and then twisted to try to scratch her back. "I know you'd do anything for your sister, but this is a bit too much."

"Don't start, I've had enough jokes to last me a lifetime." Luke replied. "Is something wrong?"

"Yeah. **The situation's a little awkward. I have an allergic reaction to stormtrooper armor.**" Mara explained and tried to scratch her face.

"Then why did you pick it?" He had to ask, snickering. She was obviously at least as uncomfortable as he was.

"I didn't know. Can you believe this is the first time I've worn one of these." Mara replied, trying to scratch her shoulder.

"If you say so, I believe you. Why don't you just take it off?"

"Don't you think I tried? It's stuck, I can't even get the helmet out."

Reaching for her helmet, Luke pulled and twisted and pulled again until it let go of Mara's head. "Ahhhhhh, ouch!" She cried while he did it.

When Luke finally looked at Mara's face, he saw that she wasn't kidding about the allergy. Her face was covered by an angry looking rash that looked very itchy. He couldn't help but think that, if the rest of her body was the same way, then Mara was _way_ more uncomfortable than he was.

Luke also couldn't help noticing that the red rash made her eyes look even greener than usual. Trying to avoid staring at her eyes, Luke said:

"Mara, you really need to get out of that armor and get some allergy meds, before the allergy spreads any further. Come on I'll take you to the Med Center."

Halfway there, and seeing that Mara couldn't stop scratching her face, Luke halted.

"Wait, Mara, don't scratch."

"Easy for you to say. It's not your face that's on fire."

"I've been in that situation. Remember Myrkr?" He recalled and cupped her face with both his hands.

"Are you saying I deserve this?" She retorted.

"Of course not."

Luke's hands on Mara's face made her very self-conscious, but felt so good at the same time. Within a few seconds, her face started to feel cooler, but the rest of her a lot warmer.

"You're using the Force to sooth my skin aren't you?"

"Yes." Luke smiled, not being able to divert his eyes from hers - so green and beautiful. Before he knew it, they were mere inches apart.

Their lips were about to touch when Mara burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry, but those buns are _really_ not working for you."

Now it was Luke's turn to feel self-conscious. "I _really_ need to get out of this costume." He added and started leading Mara to the Med Center again.

"Why don't you?"

"The wig is stitched to my hair and I'm not wearing anything under the robe." He answered, his embarrassment clearly showing.

"The things we get ourselves into..." Mara remarked, shaking her head.

"You mean the costumes, right?" Luke countered, making her laugh again.

"In this case we are entirely to blame. I mean, we did pick 'em."

"Speak for yourself. I had picked something entirely different, but there was a mix-up."

Luke's statement just made Mara laugh even more. "At least you're having fun."

"Yeah, Skywalker! Only you could make me forget how much this armor is itching me."

"It serves its purpose, then." Luke grinned.

By then they had reached the palace's Med Center and a 2-1B took Mara away into one of the cabins to help her out of the stormtrooper armor and apply the proper treatment to her allergy.

About an hour later, she came out to find Luke waiting for her in the waiting room, still wearing the white robe but without the buns. He had managed to talk one of the aides into helping him take it out.

"You didn't have to wait." She said, but was happy he did.

"Are you kidding? If I hadn't, I'd have to get back to the party. You're my alibi, I told Leia I had to make sure you were alright."

"In that case, the Two-OneBee told me to go straight home and apply some of this bacta gel on the worst of the rash." Mara said, smirking and bringing up a tube of the gel. "Are you up for helping me with that?" She teased, expecting Luke to back away as he usually did.

But this time, he didn't. He stepped even closer to her, and summoning up all his Rogue Leader boldness, he whispered to her: "You're on."

The next few hours were spent applying bacta gel and other soothing techniques to the many rashes Mara had _all over_ her body.


End file.
